Good day all. My young nephew has inherited my almost pristine 1918 BSA and his dad's 1950 Long Branch. Now he's expressing an interest in learning to reload. I'm working up plinking loads with the Hornady 174 Gr. FMJ boat tail ammo for him. To forestall the obvious, yes, I know the original Lee Enfield ammo was a flat base bullet, but the only 174 Gr. I can find is the boat tail and I saw that Budget has the PPU 174 Gr. that looks the same as the Hornady. Have any of you guys loaded and shot this stuff? If so, how did it perform for you. He'll inherit proper hunting rifles that I've worked up good accurate hunting loads for, but I want him to have a good stock of components for plinking out of the Lee Enfields. I have a nice amount of good reloadable brass put by and I'll work up proven loads for both the milsurp rifles. Given the price difference between the two manufacturers, if there's no appreciable difference in performance I'll get a whack of the PPU bullets. Thanks for looking.
PPU .303 FMJ Bullets
- Thread starter LawrenceN
- Start date
I have shot the PPU 174 .311 bullets. They work better than the Campros for accuracy however they in my opinion are not "Match" bullets as the label says. I recall weighing them and seeing a decent spread in weights. I can't recall exact numbers off the top of my head now. They shot well though.
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- Location
- Western Manitoba
https://www.prvipartizan.com/search_rbl.php This should take you to the PPU website - notice that all their 303 bullets are .311" diameter. Some of the Hornady bullets are .312" diameter - Hornady 174 Round Nose #3130, for example. The diameter may or may not matter in your rifles, but they aren't "the same". You will also find some brands of bullets listed as ".303" that are actually .310" or so.
You and he may have reasons for wanting to shoot FMJ, but likely will have a more enjoyable time shooting "accurate" bullets, which may turn out to be round nose, or flat base, or whatever. All part of the game of "reloading". I do believe that the lower cost lines of Federal and Winchester factory loaded ammo may be loaded with flat base bullets, but I have not pulled any to confirm - typically they are 150 grain or 180 grain in weight - your rifles may prefer one or the other, over 174 grain FMJBT.
You and he may have reasons for wanting to shoot FMJ, but likely will have a more enjoyable time shooting "accurate" bullets, which may turn out to be round nose, or flat base, or whatever. All part of the game of "reloading". I do believe that the lower cost lines of Federal and Winchester factory loaded ammo may be loaded with flat base bullets, but I have not pulled any to confirm - typically they are 150 grain or 180 grain in weight - your rifles may prefer one or the other, over 174 grain FMJBT.
- Location
- Western Manitoba
From the Hornady.com website, it appears it is their 174 grain FMJ for .303 British that are .3105" diameter. There Interlocks appear to be .312" diameter, for some reason...
Why are you stuck on a 174gr bullet? I use 150gr SP Hornady bullets in all my Enfields. They are flat based and shoot very well in My No1, No4 and No5 rifles. 41gr of Varget is just the ticket. Incidentally, the ballistics for this load are very close the 174gr MkVII round out to about 600y and I can use the sight settings accordingly. The commercial 174gr bullets don't have the same BC as the original MkVII round anyway if you're trying to match the military round for sight settings.
RogueTrooper
Member
- Location
- SW Ontario
There are also these; but as of yet, I have not found anyone who is carrying them so that I can give them a try for my Enfields 
https://www.sellier-bellot.cz/en/products/rifle-ammunition/rifle-ammunition-training-fmj/detail/222/
https://www.sellier-bellot.cz/en/products/rifle-ammunition/rifle-ammunition-training-fmj/detail/222/
bdft
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
I've always tried to stay close to the original bullet weight with 174s and 180s in the No 4 and 200s and 215s in the No 1. Maybe I'll try a few 150s and see what happens.
I thank you all for the input, but like bdft, I'm trying to stay as close to the original milspec rounds as possible. I have a healthy stock of soft point hunting bullets for the .303 and my intent is to work up hunting loads for both rifles after I have a good plinking load. My nephew will inherit several good .308 hunting rifles from me with proven game load data, but it's nice to have a known performer should he have to use either of his Lee Enfields for game. I have several hundred cases of good, reloadable, once fired brass. I have a lot of IVI, DIZ, and a mix of commercial as well as all the brass his father has put by. He'll be set for a long time, but I wish to ensure that he has the right powders, primers, and bullets. His dad has amassed close to 900 rnds. of good military surplus ball some brit stuff, but mostly Canadian and a pile of the FNB stuff that came on the market ages ago. I just want to ensure the young fella has a good launch into the realm of reloading.
